Topics

1

Tools & Supplies / French handwriting and exercise books

« on: April 12, 2017, 06:14:30 AM »

Questions occasionally come up about the various rulings in French school books, a complicated subject I've never really understood.  I do now though, thanks to this helpful pair of articles courtesy of Bureau Direct:

French Handwriting Exercise Books
What is Seyčs Paper?

In my opinion the Clairefontaine 2mm Seyčs ruled exercise books are one of the best paper bargains on the market, and clearly the other variations will have their uses too.

2

Everyday Handwriting | Penmanship / Write Cursive With Schin

« on: March 12, 2017, 01:40:00 PM »

Schin not being one to make a fuss about her many and various contributions to the calligraphy community, this time I thought I would.  Those who have not subscribed to her Youtube channel may be interested to hear that there is a new series on basic business writing - and jolly good it is too.  There are nine episodes so far, adding up to 3˝ hours or so of inky goodness.  Here's the first part.

Once again, three cheers for Schin. 

3

Coffee & Nib-bles / Alternative addressing

« on: December 12, 2016, 07:19:51 AM »

Now, here's a thing:

What3Words

This frankly brilliant idea is currently in use in Mongolia, and as of this week is being adopted by Ivory Coast.  How about that then, penpeople?  No more house numbers, postal codes and bizarrely long street names: just a name and three words to write.  Think of the calligraphic possibilities. 

For a longer write up, here's an article from The Atlantic.

4

Coffee & Nib-bles / What is Letterpress Art?

« on: April 07, 2016, 08:48:02 AM »

Can't say I'm much the wiser after watching this short video, but it's a nice enough way to spend two and a half minutes:

Alan Kitching, letterpress artist

5

Coffee & Nib-bles / Edward Johnston, Typographer

« on: March 30, 2016, 11:58:47 AM »

Johnston Sans: The Tube typeface that changed everything

A superficial but interesting article from the BBC about the development of Johnston and Gill Sans typefaces.  Includes a photo of Johnners at work, the usual scandal about Gill, and a mention for the Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft. 

6

Open Flourish | General Discussion / Legible "calligraphy" and Asemic Writing

« on: October 22, 2015, 05:34:22 AM »

NOTE: This topic was split from another thread: Is Good Calligraphy Subjective.

'Pretty' writing won't mean anything if no one can read it, right?

Now, that is a very interesting topic for discussion.  It could easily be argued that a truly illegible piece of good calligraphy has a better claim to being "art" than one which can be read without difficulty.

Hook baited ... let's see if I get a bite. 

7

Open Flourish | General Discussion / Cursive ... again

« on: September 27, 2015, 05:17:41 AM »

I expect some people here subscribe to the Goulet Pens Youtube channel.  The question of the week this time is "What do you see as the future of cursive writing and can/should anything be done to try to save it"?  I thought some people might like to contribute their 2c., since it's quite a hot issue.  The video is here, and the relevant bit starts around 19.30 minutes in.  It's preceded by a discussion of vintage fountain pen nibs, which some may find interesting too.

8

Coffee & Nib-bles / Recipes and Household Hints

« on: July 04, 2015, 06:26:21 AM »

A follow up to this thread, for those who are interested.  I thought I'd drop off a recipe and a hint on a weekly basis, and I hope that if anyone else has similar books they might care to contribute too.

A cake seems like a good way to start, and this one is appropriate to the season.  I take no responsibility for anyone following up on this week's hint!  There are some nice adverts in my book too, so I've added one of them. 

9

Coffee & Nib-bles / Recipes for Erica

« on: June 29, 2015, 04:21:20 AM »

Ken's post about resurrecting old threads jogged my memory.  I think someone had proposed a recipe thread (still a good idea methinks), and I mentioned in passing an old cookery book with a recipe for a happy marriage.  Erica expressed an interest, and now that the book is to hand here it is, with a couple of bonuses.  The publication date isn't obvious, but sometime around 1910 is about right.  Bon appetit!   

10

The Library / Five Centuries of German Fraktur

« on: May 14, 2015, 05:20:17 PM »

This 20-page pdf by Walden Fonts gives a potted history of Fraktur in many of its forms, from the days of Dürer to the 20th century.  This is typography rather than calligraphy if you're being picky, but it's still an interesting read - and for those who will have no truck with the printed word there's a bit about Kurrent and Sütterlin.  There's a section on typesetting conventions which answered a few questions which had been nagging me, such as how do you emphasise a word within a body of Black Letter text, and when should you use a round "s" instead of a ʃ.  Come to think of it, it's entirely possible that I'm the only one who finds such things interesting.   

The link goes direct to the pdf, so it'll either open or download depending on your browser and how it's set up.

Five Centuries of German Fraktur

Alternatively you can visit this page which has a few downloadables; the Fraktur book is "The Gutenberg Press - Manual".

11

The Library / The Macclesfield Alphabet Book

« on: May 04, 2015, 04:40:45 PM »

I'm not about to post a load of links to the British Library collections (just go here and have a good rummage), but this one is worth making an exception for.  Alphabets, fancy initials and decorative borders from c. 1500.

BL Additional MS 88887 "The Macclesfield Alphabet Book"

12

The Library / The Romance of the Rose illuminated

« on: May 04, 2015, 01:14:04 PM »

This is a not too brilliant quality pdf of a monograph on the Roman de la Rose manuscripts held by Aberystwyth University.  To be honest, they're not first division medieval books, but interesting enough if this your thing.  Because of the fairly low resolution you won't be able to see the fine details of the writing or illumination, but the layouts are clear enough.  The accompanying essays are decidedly academic in tone!  Anyway, here you go (once again the download appears to be automatic):

The Romance of the Rose illuminated: Manuscripts at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth

There are other Roman de la Rose resources which might be interesting to anyone with the urge to grab a quill and write á la mode français médiéval, if you'll pardon my Franglais.  The Roman de la Rose Digital Library catalogues and reproduces the vast majority of extant manuscripts, but if you really want to examine a good MS in fine detail the British Library has a fantastic digital facsimile of the Harley 4425 Roman which I can't recommend highly enough.

13

The Library / Benedikt Gröndal : Handwriting Models (1883)

« on: April 29, 2015, 07:52:51 PM »

Something a little out of the ordinary: Icelandic copperplate, anyone?  This is interesting in its own right, but vastly improved by Gunnlaugur S.E. Briem's excellent introduction.  Unless my browser is behaving eccentrically, the 2.4Mb pdf will download automatically.

Benedikt Gröndal : Handwriting Models

14

The Library / Il Perfetto scrittore, di M. Gio. Francesco Cresci

« on: April 29, 2015, 07:28:01 PM »

To go with Arrighi and Palatino, here's the third great early work on Italic.

Il Perfetto scrittore, di M. Gio. Francesco Cresci

This one took a bit of finding.  Ordinarily I do my best to avoid Google Books because the scans can be pretty rough and ready, but this is one of the more usable examples.  However, I've come across a better one previously, but can I find it?     If anyone has better luck, please share the link.

15

The Library / Palatino

« on: April 29, 2015, 05:51:07 PM »

As a complement to Arrighi's Operina posted by Ellen, here's another major text on early Italic:

Libro di M. Giovambattista Palatino cittadino romano : nelqual s'insegna ŕ scriuer ogni sorte lettera, antica & moderna, di qualun que natione, con le sue regole, & misure, & essempi : et con vn breve et vtil discorso de le cifre